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Welcome to my blog. I am honored to have you visit. I hope you'll find my articles a blessing. I welcome your input and especially comments and questions.

I write as a Christian from Jerusalem, Israel about Biblical subjects.

I am particularly interested in the subjects of children, families, women's issues, corporal punishment, science and nature as these subjects relate to the Holy Scriptures.

For more information, see my website: www.biblechild.com

With every good wish - Samuel Martin

Sunday, December 09, 2012

The Two Churches (Part One)

The Two Churches (Part One)

Very uncharacteristically of me, I’ve been reading Dickens of late. Anyone
who knows me, knows that fiction is something I engage rarely, though some
people who read my material would disagree with that statement.

However, of late, my ten year old and I have been spending that special
story time at night reading Great Expectations. It is a bit of a slow go
because Dicken’s English is a bit unfamiliar to her and there are lots of “Dad,
what does that mean?” breaks. It’s good because there are lots of new words for
her and we get to have a bit of fun. I am trying not to paraphrase because I
read it real slow with a bit of acting and theatre to go along (Yes, I can even
manage a pretty decent British accent if the spirit moves me after being born
in the UK). She is totally in for the theatrics making the whole thing a bit of
a production in fact.

But, it was not Pip, Miss Havisham, Uncle Pummelchook, Mr. Wopsle, Bentley
Drummle or Biddy that jogged my memory of my own childhood. It was Pip’s
description of dinner.

“Dinner was a gay affair for everyone except me. I was not allowed
to speak. Much of the conversation centered on me and the burden I
was to my poor sister,…” (ch.2)

I’ve been to these types of dinners. These types of dinners where children
are to be seen and not heard! [This absolute wisdom in the ‘Spare the Rod,
Spoil the Child’ tradition is quoted in the Western world as if it came from
Jesus Himself!] Dinner was not the only place where children were to be seen
and not heard.
I remember once when I was a kid of no more than six years. I went to play
with a friend at his home. We came into the kitchen to sit at the table to have
a cup of milk. I made the horrifying error of making a noise when I drank my
milk. Imagine that, a six year old who makes a little noise drinking. The
thought of it! Not in my friend’s house! That was an offense which was
punishable with the rod and don’t worry his mum had one constantly nearby. More
on this later.

Welcome to Church – Come in, sit
down, don’t move and shut up

Now, children who did not speak and who were seen but not heard was part and
parcel of my early childhood and this was especially the case at church.

Church was a place you entered from outside. The ground inside was holy and
to be treated as such.
Children were allowed in church as long as they sat still, shut up and were
perfect. Anything less than that was the signal for the parents to march their
little charges out of the “holy assembly” to a nearby location for a solid and
firm round of spanking/smacking/the rod/corporal punishment, etc. Don’t worry,
this location was known to all, it was used regularly and they would make sure
that paddles were available.

I didn’t get too much of that at church myself. I was well behaved generally
speaking. I was also too busy sitting down next to my mother and sisters, mouth
shut, hands folded, back straight and head erect. God help you if you needed,
of all things, to use the toilet at the wrong time. Because that would mean
that my mother would have to get up in view of the whole congregation, and do
the unthinkable (God forbid), take her uncontrollable charge to the bathroom.
Perish the thought! Also, God help you if you were forced to sit and couldn’t
hold it! Another unforgivable offense which also had its remedy for some: the
paddle as well.

You see, I was the youngest in my family and I was the only son and God
forbid I embarrass my father (who was often the preaching minister) and mother
in the church.

But don’t feel too sad for me. My family, along with 10,000’s of others,
left that church in 1974 after Herbert W. Armstrong’s prophecies concerning the
end of the world uttered multiple times in the 1950’s failed.

When I look back and reflect on my own upbringing and experience with
church, I notice now that I am an adult, how many of the ideas which were
pretty much part and parcel of my church experience, have been shared by
millions of Christians and today, many of them, like me, will do anything they
can to get away from this previous environment and will under no circumstances
subject even their worst enemy to the same much less their loving family.

The Two Churches

In talking about my propensities to read fiction, I have another daughter
who is a bit younger and we also do a bit of reading. I’ve always wanted to
figure out a way to include Dr. Suess in my academic presentations ever since I
heard Claire Pfann pull it off so amazingly [Of course, Claire doesn’t need to
pull anything off being one of the most powerful Bible scholars we have in
Jerusalem today (or in the universe for that matter) – See
http://s3.amazonaws.com/narkis/Mary%20of%20Migdal,%20a%20Model%20of%20Faith%20-%20Claire%20Pfann%20-%2013%20Apr%202006.mp3
] , so now I’ve managed to do it. You see, this is because my 6 year old loves
“The Cat in the Hat.”

In the story, she enjoys the various characters, but she really likes Thing
One and Thing Two.
So, this paper gives me a chance to talk about what I will call:

Church One and Church Two

I have a lot of experience with Church One. I am patiently waiting for
Church Two.
Church One – Some of its characteristics

Now, I know a little something about Church One. I’ve lived it. I was quite
small when I left Church One. (about 8 years old in fact) I’ve also noticed a
few similarities that my Church One has with lots of other Church One’s I’ve
heard about. Let’s look at some of these:

1. Headed by a singular charismatic leader who rules Church One with an iron
fist from the top down – Everyone here can often just cut and paste the name of
their own charismatic church leader here. My charismatic leader was Mr. Herbert
W. Armstrong, the Pastor General (love those military terms) of the World Wide
Church of God. [Note: if you are presently in a denomination where the head of
your church chooses to identify himself by the term “Pastor General”, this
could be an immediate signal to leave the church immediately. ]

2. Church One leaders lead lavish, lifestyles of
luxury with the need to have massive resources at their control to do “God’s
work” including all types of physically properties, cars, and even lear jet
airplanes.

3.Church One leader’s incomes are almost always in the top 1% of the
incomes that are present among their members.

4. Church One leaders often have a
cadre of lawyers and accountants around them to help them take advantage of
every non-profit tax law, tax avoidance, loophole, church property and
compensation designation, ad nauseum. If they ever get into trouble, they
normally will be seen in the company of the most expensive, high powered
attorney’s money can buy.

5. Church One members are required
to pay “tithes” according to the interpretation of Church One leaders. Church
One leaders are exempt from paying anything as they are the recipients of the
“tithe.” Members are also expected to give sacrificial gifts to Church One and
many members will often go without many basic needs to give money to Church
One.

6. Church leaders maintain
“doctrinal committees” which on the surface are suggested to be forums where
new information is discussed and formulated, but, in practice, these bodies are
in existence to continue promoting the same old teachings that Church One has
been teaching since its inception. The old line is to be preserved at all
costs. There is no such thing as “new truth.”

7. Men are firmly in charge and
control all power and resources in Church One at all levels – This is a pretty
standard one.

a.Men are the preeminent
social being in the universeb.God has given Christianity a
‘masculine feel.’

8. Women are
welcome to participate in Church One according to the following terms

a.Come in, sit down and shut
upb.We will tell you what to wear, how
to look and whatever you do, it will most probably be wrong and not good enough
for the Lord’s standard, which we define and continuously modify, clarify,
change, adjust according to our own priorities.c.Do not think, ask or
question anythingd.Ladies, your intuition is wrong,
misguided and cannot be trustede.Don’t question your husband f.All men in Church One
are your authority figures who are also not to be questionedg.We’re all one in Christ, but
… (you all know what to add here)h.Women are inferior to men

9. Children – Children are little creatures that are full of sin

a.Children are subject to the
authority of any adult and must always do what they are told by older adults no
matter whatb.Sin is to be beaten out of them
(often called by a neutral term “spanking”)c.They are also welcome in
Church One much on the same terms as womend.Play is something to be frowned on

10. The World
outside of Church One

a.The world outside is evil,
full of sinners who are all going to Hell or who will be annihilated foreverb.Church One members are basically
the only people who will be savedc.Church One members will be
saved if and only if they stay in Church One and do
exactly what they are told never questioning anything told to them by the
Church One leadership

11. The Bible

a.The King James Version (KJV)
of the Bible is the Word of Godb.The KJV is perfect, is not
deficient in any way and is never to be questionedc.The use of or suggestion to
use another Bible version is absolutely ridiculous and potentially heresyd.The King James Version was good
enough for Jesus; It is good enough for Church One and its members.e.Under no circumstances are you
ever to question the Bible interpretation of the leaders of Church One. They
have been placed in authority over by God and their word on what the Bible
teaches is final, absolute and not subject to any questioning, debate or
discussion

Now
that we’ve heard about Church One, next time, we’ll talk about Church Two.

5 comments:

Not too far from truth, even in 2012. Church One has many "Pharisees." Being single and female, I never intend to marry in the church.. for the reasons you enumerate. At 67, I hardly need to worry about it, but I have successfully avoided it for 30 some years.

As a child, I just accepted that Church One was what God wanted, even though (way back then), I felt it was off the mark.

Now, as a wife and mother, I'm done agreeing to that falsehood by my silence. I'm tired of women and children being marginalized in God's name when the whole goal of Scripture is unity and inclusion through Christ's sacrificial love.

Thank you for being willing to point out the Church's errors in a kind, logical, and firm manner.

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About Me

Samuel Martin was born in England and is the youngest child of Dr. Ernest L. and Helen R. Martin, who are both Americans. He lived in the UK for the first 7 years of his life before moving to the USA with his family at age 7. He lived in the USA until 2001 when he married a native Israeli and relocated to live in Jerusalem. He and his wife, Sonia, have 2 daughters.
His experience with biblical scholarship began at an early age. His father initiated a program in conjunction with Hebrew Univ. and Prof. Benjamin Mazar, where over a 5 year period, some 450 college students came to work on an archaeological excavation in Jerusalem starting in 1969. Since that first trip, Samuel has visited Israel on 14 different occasions living more than 5 years of his life in the country. He has toured all areas of Israel as well as worked in several archaeological excavations.
Today, he has begun his academic career publishing 2 books dealing with biblical issues.
I write regularly on biblical subjects with a particular interest in children, families, nature, science and the Bible,and gender in the Biblical context.